New Delhi: On 14 November, he arrived in Gujarat on a Shirdi-Dadar train and took a local train from Vapi to Udvada. At the Udvada railway station, he saw a girl (19) smiling on her phone and thought she was laughing at him. Angered, he allegedly followed her, found her in an isolated place and strangulated her. He then allegedly dragged her unconscious body into a nearby mango orchard near the tracks and raped her before he killed her.
Immediately after the rape-murder, he bought a packet of milk, a Maaza bottle, a water bottle, and a fruit salad. He was perturbed only when he realised he was missing his backpack and that he had left it near the body of the 19-year-old. By then, the body had been discovered. He waited for hours to collect the backpack but could find no such opportunity. Finally, he headed into Udvada town. In the coming days, he allegedly committed at least two more crimes.
Nearly 14 days after the Udvada rape-murder, 29-year-old Rahul alias Bholu Karamvir Ishwar Jat, a native of Haryana’s Rohtak, was arrested in the case from Gujarat’s Vapi. In less than a month, Jat, according to investigators, committed five murders, one two days before his arrest. His backpack, found at the site of the Udvada rape-murder and containing a sweater, four shirts, two half-pants and some snacks, helped the police eventually put him behind bars.
Since his arrest on 26 November, Jat, police sources said, has been changing his statements. One of his claims is that he was in Gujarat to collect money from a hotel where he worked previously. Investigators are trying to verify everything Jat tells them by analysing CCTV footage and going through the phones he has been using. With a record of at least 11 crimes in the past and having spent time in different jails, Jat was on bail when he allegedly killed five people in less than a month.
Police sources said the probe, so far, has revealed that Jat raped and murdered a 53-year-old woman in Andhra Pradesh’s Gooty on 20 October this year and a 35-year-old man in Bengaluru on 25 October. The Udvada rape-murder came next, followed by the killings of a 63-year-old man on a Howrah-Kanyakumari train on 19 November and another 46-year-old woman on a train near Telangana’s Secunderabad railway station on 24 November. Rape is yet to be ascertained in the last case.
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A frequent rain traveller
Jat would travel in trains in the seats for the specially abled.
“His one leg is a little shorter than the other, but he can walk around. He is a drug addict and keeps travelling on trains, looting people for daily needs. He regularly changes his SIM and mobile phone after snatching them from co-passengers,” Valsad division Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) A.K. Varma told ThePrint.
After Jat allegedly raped and murdered the 19-year-old in Udvada, he made some purchases and drank milk from a packet, CCTV footage has shown. When he realised he had left his backpack at the crime scene, it was already too late.
“On returning to the spot, he saw people gathering around the body. The woman’s body was sent to the hospital, but the crowd remained in the area. He waited till 10.30 pm, watching everything from behind the tall grass and then jumped across the wall into Udvada town,” a senior police officer said. “Later, he reached the Valsad railway station around 2.30 am and asked the station master about the next trains.”
Investigators said the previous cases against Jat included theft and arms smuggling. Police from across states are now working in close coordination to complete the investigations into the other four murders.
Asked about his motives behind these other four murders, another senior police officer said, “He does not give a fixed answer. He said that he killed one man in Howrah because he did not share his ‘beedi’ with him”.
Investigators said the exact route Jat took on the day of the Udvada rape-murder remains unclear but that they suspect that he boarded a train to Vadodara after spending some time in Udvada.
How Jat was caught
Valsad police’s probe started with the backpack that Jat left behind. His clothes inside proved crucial for the investigating team as one of the CCTV images of him in the same clothes was an 80 percent match. The investigators then forward traced his movements. Another thing stood out—his tilted leg movement.
The investigators matched details and images they obtained in the investigation with jail records. Between 2018-2024, Jat spent 22 months in jail, and a jail record from Jodhpur helped the investigating team narrow their search down to him.
“We still had four suspects at that time. We contacted the accused’s family to confirm information about his leg. That is how we confirmed his identity,” DySP Varma told ThePrint.
Speaking with ThePrint, a senior police officer said Jat has confessed to the murders but has not provided crucial details.
“The police teams are working closely to collect evidence on the other four crimes he has committed. He understands how police officers work. So, he knows how to misguide investigators. He has stolen several mobile phones and also used them. We have been tracing their owners and trying to piece together the puzzle,” another senior police officer said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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